CBC journalist earns Great Trekker award

A distinguished CBC Television journalist who has trekked across Canada and
around the world to bring Canadians information on issues that affect their
lives has been named the 1998 recipient of the Great Trekker Award.

Eve Savory graduated from UBC in 1969 with a BA in Asian Studies.

"I am incredibly honoured," says Savory. "The Great Trekker Award links the
alumni back to the students again and forges a new bond between generations.

"I remember hearing about the award when I was a student at UBC, but I never
dreamed that I would receive it."

The award is given by UBC students to people who become prominent through
achievements in their chosen fields and who make special contributions to the
community.

With the opening of the Sing Tao School of Journalism and the 80th anniversary
of The Ubyssey, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) felt it fitting to recognize
a journalist of Savory's stature with the Great Trekker Award.

"Eve Savory has contributed greatly to informing Canadians about a wide-range
of important topics," says AMS alumni commissioner, Dennis Visser.

Savory has done it all in her 24 years with CBC News, from general assignment
duties in Vancouver to regional parliamentary reporter in Ottawa and national
reporter in Saskatchewan and Alberta. She rose to prominence as the medical,
science, environment and technology specialist for the network.

For the past four years, Savory has continued her special interests in the
environment and science as a documentary reporter for The National Magazine.

The AMS cited the range of Savory's subjects, such as documentaries on the
Voyager spacecraft mission to Neptune and a young girl's experience of a bone
marrow transplant. Savory also covered the AIDS epidemic in its earliest days.

Savory's work has been acknowledged by a string of top awards.

In 1995, she received the Royal Canadian Institute's Sanford Fleming Medal
for outstanding achievements in promoting knowledge and understanding of science
among Canadians. In 1990 the B.C. Science Council established the Eve Savory
Award for Science Communication.

"It is my sense that journalists in Canada are intimidated by science and
yet we know that science is shaping our lives in ways we barely understand,"
Savory says. "To be honoured as a science journalist is an affirmation that
the students recognize the importance of communicating science to Canadians."

The Great Trekker award, established in 1950, commemorates the Great Trek
of Oct. 28, 1922, when 1,200 UBC students marched from the university's temporary
home on the Fairview site to Point Grey to pressure the government to complete
work on the university's buildings, still unfinished after 15 years.